


no one has to die

by elizabaethhenstridge (kferreryo)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Angst, F/M, Gen, Team Bus - Freeform, also may's in this but she's kinda not? idk ok she's a computer program so there ya go, based on an online game, but i suppose there's enough references in the fic for me to include it anyway, i hesitate to include fitzsimmons in the relationship tag because it's really not focused on romance, tw: suicide mentions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-13
Updated: 2015-03-13
Packaged: 2018-03-17 13:15:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3530762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kferreryo/pseuds/elizabaethhenstridge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skye, a visitor, finds herself locked in the security room of SHIELD Headquarters when a fire breaks out in the building. With her access to the security system, she has to decide which ones of the four people trapped in the building to save. As she communicates to the four via video chat, she unearths a larger mystery buried deep beneath the ashes and discovers what it truly means to make the hard call.</p><p>Based on the game <em><a href="http://die.clay.io/game/die">no-one has to die</a></em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome, (Visitor) Skye.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This fic is based on the game _no-one has to die_ by StuStutheBloo. I based the plot and most of the dialogue of this fic from there, and I don't take credit for either of those.
> 
> I made a few tweaks here and there to SHIELD, which will be explained later on in the fic, but as this is mostly from Skye's POV, you'll be discovering the answers as she does :)
> 
> Be warned, there's a lot of death to be found in this fic, but there's a reason I didn't put it in the archive warnings. Still, I think y'all should know what you're getting into so you don't wonder why I didn't tag it.
> 
> You don't have to have played the game to understand this, because this is essentially just an _AoS_ -flavored version of that plot; having said that, I _highly_ recommend playing it after finishing this fic, because it's an excellent game with an engaging story. (I say after and not before because finishing the game would ruin the surprise ;) )
> 
> Because the flow of the fic is quite a bit complicated (you'll soon see what I mean in later chapters), I'll be including a handy little chart at the beginning of every chapter to help you keep track of everything (I based this chart off the game, as well).
> 
> With that, I think I've rambled on long enough. On to the fic - I hope you enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * * *

“URGENT: SHIELD Headquarters security has been compromised. All personnel evacuate immediately.”

The young woman burst into the SHIELD HQ security room; it was empty, but all the monitors were functioning. Squinting her eyes into the dark room, she noticed that the controls were still up, but the announcement from the monotonous female voice over the PA system did not bode well. Before going any further, she shut the door behind her.

She almost took a step back when she saw the two motionless bodies on the floor, blood pooled under them and soaking through their clothes, but she swallowed the bile making its way up her throat and crouched down. She pressed two fingers to each of their cool wrists to check their pulses—nothing. Sighing dejectedly, she let go; there was nothing more she could do for them now and she made a mental note to tell emergency services to retrieve the bodies later.

A flashing screen from one of the computers caught her eye; stepping over the two figures to pull up an office chair, she sat herself in it, grabbed the mouse, and scanned the interface—it showed a warning that told her there was a fire in the floors below the ground one, where she was on.

“ _TEMPEST_ engaged. Security room locked. Emergency services contacted. ETA: 3 hours, 17 minutes.” came the PA voice again.

“Crap.” the woman muttered. She was stuck, but she turned her attention to the monitor; perhaps she could figure out a way to remotely extinguish the fire using the security controls system. The screen in front of her displayed floor plans—of this building, she assumed—and four blinking GPS dots on the one for floor B3, indicating four people were stuck on that floor. To the right side of the screen, a message popped up: ‘All security cameras disabled. Video chat operational.’ She clicked the popup; someone might be in need of her help.

_PLEASE LOGIN._

Quickly, she clicked the _Visitor_ button, which opened a window prompting her for her name. She typed it in and pressed _Return_.

_Welcome, (Visitor) Skye._

Skye bit her lip anxiously and waited for the chat to load as the webcam in front of her switched itself on. Once the video chat was loaded, she saw herself on the monitor, brown eyes wide, sweat dripping down her cheeks. “Hello? Is anyone there?” she breathed. “What’s going on?”

 _Jemma Simmons has logged on to SHIELD HQ communications network,_ came another popup on Skye's screen. A young brunette's face appeared on the monitor, on a window below her own. “There’s a fire! Everybody evacuate the building!” she cried, running her fingers through her curls. Skye could see that she was running while clutching her camera—a phone, it looked like—and Skye said, “I’m stuck in here; I’m in the security room!”

_Leo Fitz has logged on to SHIELD HQ communications network._

“Jemma? Thank God you’re alive. This is pretty bad; I can smell the smoke from here.” the curly haired man who’d just appeared on Skye’s monitor said; he was rushing down a hall, too.

“Fitz? Why are you still here? I thought you’d gone home!” Jemma squeaked.

“No, I was stuck on a design and didn’t want to leave it unfinished for the night.” he replied tersely. He held up a roll of paper to the camera, and Jemma pressed her free hand to her neck in exasperation.

"This is no time for trying to salvage your designs, Fitz!"

"Well, if _you'd_ been working on this for a month, perhaps you'd like to make sure you don't have to start from square one once this fire nonsense is over!" he shot back.

_Grant Ward has logged on to SHIELD HQ communications network._

_Phil Coulson has logged on to SHIELD HQ communications network._

Two more faces appeared on her screen—a tall, muscular man with black hair, and an older man in a suit.

“This is Director Coulson of SHIELD telling everybody in the facility to evacuate the building. Security staff, report in immediately.” the man in the suit said. "Does anyone copy?"

Skye glanced back at the two dead bodies on the floor—she supposed _they_ must be the security staff on duty. “The security staff are dead. I found them lying here in the control room. I... saw a warning on this screen about a fire, so I logged in.” she explained, and Coulson’s expression turned into one of panic.

“What happened?”

“I killed them. And I lit the fire.” the younger man named Grant Ward said. Skye’s eyes drifted to his face, and Ward looked away from his screen as all of them stared in horror.

“Who the _hell_ are you? Is this a joke?” Fitz growled at him, his phone shaking in his hands.

Coulson shook his head and regained his composure. “We don’t have time for this, Fitz. What’s your name, visitor?” he asked.

“Skye.”

“Skye, if you’re in the control room then you’re the only one who can help us. Do you see the floor plans of each floor, and our locations?” he instructed, and when Skye gave him a nod, he continued, “You’ll need one of the security codes.”

Skye clicked on the floor the four people were stuck on, and a popup message asked her for a code. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard—she didn’t have a clue what the code was, and despite her excellent hacking skills, getting into the system and using one of her exploits would take time. She opened up a new window, anyway; perhaps a quicker solution would come into her mind later.

“The code is RFTS.” Ward said, and Fitz glared again.

“Is this some kind of game to you?”

“Security code confirmed. Security system online. Beginning scan, floor B3.” the PA system called out.

“Pay attention to that voice, Skye—that’s M.E.L.I.N.D.A., our automated announcement system.” Coulson told her.

Skye raised her eyebrow as she read out the letters in her head. “Melinda? Is she some kind of robot?” she muttered.

Coulson shrugged. “Of sorts. Now, I’m afraid you’re going to have to make a hard call, Skye…”

M.E.L.I.N.D.A.’s voice interrupted Coulson as he looked at his screen woefully. “Calculations complete. Fire on floor B3.

"One casualty unavoidable.”

Skye gasped as she looked at the three frightened faces on the monitor. They’d stopped walking; before Jemma dropped her hand—and her phone—to her side, Skye saw her close her eyes as she leaned against the cool, white wall, trying to steady her breathing.

“Candidates: Grant Ward, Leo Fitz.”

“What does that mean?” Jemma asked quietly as she raised her phone to show her face again—she looked like she was about to throw up. Skye didn’t blame her; if she wasn't actively trying to keep a cool head, she'd be right there freaking out with her.

Ward gritted his teeth as he stared at them, his jaw set and eyes boring deep into the camera. “Skye has to choose between keeping me or Fitz alive. I don’t think it’s that hard of a choice. My job here is done; I’m ready to die.” Ward says, and Skye caught a glimmer of desperation in his voice—why did he want to die so badly? Was he so consumed by guilt over starting the fire? Was he afraid of spending the rest of his life in jail? Was killing himself part of the plan all along? Skye hated being in the dark; she needed answers before she could make a decision, but she was running out of time.

“The fire’s growing. Skye—“ Coulson started.

“I got it. I’m a hacker, and I just got into the controls... unfortunately, I can’t override them in such a short amount of time—your security guys are _good_.” Skye said as she opened up a new window beside the floor plan. Her admiration was short lived, however, as she realized the impeccability of their security system meant she had to sentence one of these four people to certain death. She tried not to think about the fact as she ran her cursor over the layout.

 _URGENT: Please enter your security system orders immediately. The video chat has been locked until your decision is made,_ the screen flashed.

“Alright…” Skye said, eyes narrowed in concentration at the monitor in front of her.

"Let’s do this.”


	2. The Cockatiel Story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “The fire has been contained. 

“Casualties: Grant Ward.”

As the video chat system went back online, Fitz let out a relieved sigh, leaning against the fire door Skye had just locked remotely. “Glad that’s over.” He scanned his surroundings—the fire hadn’t reached the hallway in front of him, and he began to trudge forward.

Jemma looked at him, appalled. “How can you say that? Someone just died!”

“He tried to kill us, Jemma!” he said as he paced past the empty rooms. He had no idea where he was going, but judging by the fact that Skye hadn’t directed him to an alternate route yet, he guessed he was going the right way.

“Yes, but his last act was to save your life. He sacrificed himself for you; have a little respect!” Jemma cried.

Skye smirked at them from the screen. “So, you two know each other?”

“Fitz and I have had the misfortune of being partners for the last few years.” Jemma rolled her eyes, but she gave a quick smile. “He’s my best friend. We do this a lot.”

“As if you don’t wish you’d gotten to work in Operations. So many well-formed and symmetrical guys to fawn over there, eh, Jemma?” Fitz countered, but grinned. Despite their current predicament, he felt a small measure of comfort from the fact that he was experiencing it with his best friend. _When we get out,_ he thinks, _this’ll be an interesting story to tell our friends._ And speaking of getting out…

“Guys. Shouldn’t you be looking for a way out?” interjected Coulson. Skye watched their backgrounds move as they began to pace down the halls.

“The main hallway’s completely destroyed; I can’t get through.” Jemma said, and turned her phone around to show them—the floor was unstable and the walls and floors were charred; no way Jemma would risk walking through there.

“I’ve found a staircase up to the next floor; comin’ up now.” Fitz said, and he jogged up the steps, phone still in hand.

“Me too. I’m up.” Jemma said, and Coulson nodded.

“Beginning scan, floor B2.”

“Our visitor Skye’s being very quiet. What’s your story?” Fitz asked, reaching the top of the staircase. He wondered what the pretty young hacker was doing at SHIELD—did they take her in?

“I don’t work here; I was consulting.” she replied.

“Consulting? Hm… let me guess. Russian History? Astral projection?” Fitz muttered knowingly—SHIELD was always bringing in strange people, seemingly from around the world, for their 'research'. One time, he thought he caught sight of someone _levitating_.

“No, they needed my help with pattern recognition and analysis software. Those were some weird guesses, though—what exactly do you do at SHIELD?” Skye asked, her brows furrowing as her lips formed a confused pout. The software she’d been asked to work on was normal enough—she guessed that they'd use it to classify intel and personnel data. 

“We do field work, data analysis, and specialist training for private firms. But SHIELD’s been doing research for the strangest, most random things. There doesn’t seem to be a connection between them.” Fitz explained.

“SHIELD pulls in experts on different fields—some that aren’t even credible or scientifically plausible—and interviews them, asks them questions about their fields of expertise. We aren’t even sure what it’s all for.” Jemma added.

Fitz nodded in agreement. “It pays well, though, and our work in the lab’s engaging enough, so here we are. Well, Jemma works here because no one else wants her, but that’s different,” he said, which earned him an eye-roll from Jemma.

“Shut up, Fitz, I want to ask Coulson a serious question. I wanna know about the cockatiels.”

“…cockatiels?” Skye asked, suppressing a laugh. This was getting weirder and weirder by the minute.

Fitz grinned. “Ah, the cockatiel story. For nearly a year, we’d be gettin’ shipments of live cockatiels, by the thousands. God knows how many birds they bought…”

“…but the cockatiels were never seen again.” Jemma continued. “No one knows what happened to them. It’s an animal rights issue.” she explained.

“Woah, that’s insane. What was going on, Coulson?” Skye asked, and the three turned their attention to Coulson’s window on their screens, which showed a view of the textured white ceiling and one of the fluorescent office lights, as if Coulson had laid his phone on a flat surface.

“We were buying cockatiels looking for a phoenix.” came his disembodied voice.

“That’s no explanation.” said Jemma. The no-nonsense biochemist was itching for answers, but it seemed Coulson wasn’t ready to be upfront about it to them yet. Fitz agreed with her—he too was curious of what SHIELD’s true interest was, but he figured the answers could wait until they got out and talked in person.

“Have you guys found anything interesting on the second floor?” Skye asked, turning her attention to the floor plan. The three others shook their heads, and Skye frowned again.

“Shouldn’t you guys know your way around this building?”

“Our access to the rooms here is very limited. SHIELD’s system is based upon compartmentalization of information.” Jemma explained. “Doesn’t mean we like not knowing, though.” she added under her breath.

“To be honest, I’ve only been here a few times. I know what facilities this building contains, but I don’t know much about its layout.” Coulson added.

“Oh, that’s right,” Fitz said as he stopped by a corner to take a rest, “It’s been in the notices that you were coming today. What was happenin’ today?”

“Just some financial business. Nothing that could have encouraged arson…” Coulson said, his face appearing on the screen once more as he started to walk. The other three doubted his statement but kept quiet for the moment—soon they’d find a slip of the tongue that would clue them in to the project SHIELD was keeping under wraps; surely Coulson couldn’t keep it a secret for long, especially not if he wanted to salvage any of it from this fire. They all gave each other a curt nod as M.E.L.I.N.D.A. spoke up once more.

“Calculations complete.

“Fire on floor B2. One casualty unavoidable.

“Candidates: Phil Coulson, Leo Fitz.” M.E.L.I.N.D.A.’s voice rang out over the near-empty building.

“Bloody hell—not again!”

“Either Coulson or Fitz is going to die…” Skye trailed off.  She shut her eyes for a moment and drew in a breath as her fingers ghosted over the keyboard. Two people’s lives were in her hands, and the thought weighed over her like a ton of rocks. Killing Ward was hard enough—sure, _he_ was the one who’d started the fire, but he was still a human being, and now she was confronted with the fact that she'd have to kill another one. The choice was impossible—letting Coulson die would mean killing their chances of discovering the truth, and letting Fitz die would mean killing an innocent man who had simply been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

‘URGENT: Please enter your security system orders immediately. The video chat system has been locked until your decision is made.’

Skye exhaled and began to type once more.


End file.
